SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR BROKERING THE SALE OF ADVERTISING ON CONTAINERS
A system and method for the automated brokering of advertising space on beverage or similar containers offered by retail distributors, and more particularly brokering of advertising space on retailer-branded products for related goods or services (e.g., milk jug container advertising for breakfast cereal or cookies).
This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/723,048, for a “System and Method for the Management of Advertising on Containers,” by J. Fenti et al., filed Oct. 3, 2005, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
A system and method for providing portable advertisement originating at a retail outlet, including the automated brokering of advertising space on beverage containers offered by retail beverage distributors, and more particularly brokering of advertising space on retailer-branded products for related goods or services (e.g., milk jug advertising for breakfast cereal or cookies).
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARYA new avenue for advertising has been identified by several companies that arrange for the placement of advertisements on milk and similar beverage containers. However, one downfall of such advertising is that it fails to address the needs of privately branded products or to take advantage of cross-product advertising because there is little or no coordination between the advertising appearing on a container, for example a milk jug, and the presence of the advertised product in the same store. In other words, there is less advantage in advertising a particular brand of cookies on a milk container that is sold in a store that does not sell that brand of cookies. Hence, there is a need to coordinate the advertisement/marketing of related products.
Due to the current advertising process, milk advertisers that merely work to place advertisements on containers, also fail to provide any advantage or incentive for retailers (particularly those having their own branded products, such as milk) to place advertisements on the branded goods. In fact, the presence of other advertising may be viewed by some retailers as a detriment to their private brand. They fail to appreciate that the space on such containers could be leveraged by the private brand retailer for the sale of advertising. Moreover, no systems are in place to provide timely and accurate sales or brokering of such advertising space in a manner suitable to meet the turnaround time for perishable or dated beverages such as milk and the like.
In response, the system and method described herein are directed to a robust process that not only provides for the placement of targeted advertising on product containers such as milk jugs or cartons, particularly for branded products, but also for the management and tracking of such advertisement, reporting to advertisers and coordinating with the retailer to improve not only satisfaction with, but also revenue from, advertisement on beverage containers.
One aspect of the invention disclosed herein is directed to a method for managing the sale of advertising on beverage containers, comprising: receiving, from a retailer, beverage order data indicating a quantity of future beverage orders issued from said retailer to a bottler; in response to said beverage order data, determining available advertising space associated with the beverage order; automatically offering, to at least one advertiser, at least a portion of the available advertising space associated with the beverage order; automatically receiving, from the at least one advertiser, an acceptance of at least a portion of the available advertising space; in response to the acceptance, requesting advertising copy in a format suitable to fit within a predefined shape; upon receiving the advertising copy, preparing printed copy including the advertising ; affixing the printed copy to a plurality of beverage containers; and tracking, with said retailer, sales of the beverage containers bearing the printed copy in conjunction with sales of at least one product indicated in the printed copy so as to determine a correlation between the beverage container advertising and any change in product sales volumes.
Another aspect of the invention disclosed herein is directed to a distributed system for managing the sale of advertising on beverage containers, comprising: a retailer computer for automatically compiling, from a plurality of retail locations, orders for beverages being sold in containers, said containers having space for advertising thereon, and tracking the sales of such beverages; an advertising broker computer for receiving, from the retailer computer, beverage order data indicating a quantity of future beverage orders issued from said retailer, wherein in response to the beverage order data, the advertising broker computer (a) determines available advertising space associated with the beverage order, (b) automatically offers, to at least one advertiser, at least a portion of the available advertising space associated with the beverage order, (c) automatically receives, from an advertiser data indicating an acceptance for advertising offered on at least a portion of the available advertising space, and (d) in response to the advertiser's acceptance, places an order for advertising copy; the advertising broker computer also tracking, with said retailer, sales of beverage containers bearing printed advertising copy in conjunction with sales of at least one product indicated in the advertising copy to determine a correlation between the beverage container advertising and product sales volumes.
A further aspect of the disclosed invention is directed to a method for managing the sale of product advertising on containers, comprising: receiving, from a retailer, product order data indicating a quantity of future product orders issued from said retailer to a product supplier, said data identifying at least one characteristic of the container; in response to said product order data, determining available advertising space and quantity associated with the product order based upon the container characteristic; offering, to at least one advertiser, at least a portion of the advertising space and quantity available as a result of the product order; receiving, from the at least one advertiser, an acceptance of at least the portion of the available advertising space and quantity; and placing advertising copy in the portion of the advertising space and quantity available on product containers.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIGS. 3, 5A-5D, 6A-6D, 7A-7G and 8A-8F are illustrative examples of the placement of advertising and advertising locations on an exemplary beverage container;
Although described herein relative to the placement of advertising on the side panels of a milk container, the present invention may also be directed to the placement of advertising on a plurality of related goods that are typically purchased by consumers, including many branded goods (breakfast cereals, canned goods, other dairy products and meat/deli products). In the case of several of the aforementioned products, current label-printing technology found in the retail locations (e.g., meat department) may be suitable for printing of labels bearing advertisements as disclosed and described below. Accordingly, the following disclosure is intended to be construed in a broad sense and not limited to the specific embodiments described.
It should be appreciated that aspects of the disclosed invention are particularly directed to the cost-effective sale or brokering of advertising space on portable consumer goods such as grocery products and the like. More particularly, the invention seeks to provide further opportunity in a low-margin, high-volume retail setting that will enable grocers to profitably “sell” space on their products for consumer-directed advertising.
Turning to
In other words, in response to the beverage order data the advertiser interface 120 determines available advertising space associated with the beverage order; from the retailer. It is also possible that the order data, having been provided from the retailer 110 to the bottler 130, is provided to the advertising interface 120 via the bottler, or that the bottler may supplement the data to indicate anticipated production runs etc. that provide order quantity detail to the advertising interface.
One the available advertising space is determined by the advertising interface, the space is automatically offered to at least one advertiser. It will be appreciated that advertising space may be on a per-container or per panel (side or surface of container) basis. In other words, at least a portion of the available advertising space associated with the beverage order is made available to advertisers. Although not specifically illustrated, one of the functions contemplated for the advertising interface (e.g., broker), or more specifically a computer-based system operated on behalf of the advertising interface, is automatically offering available advertising space and automatically receiving an acceptance or order for advertising.
In addition, the computer operated by the advertising interface may conduct a bidding process (when there is greater demand that supply of advertising space) whereby an advertiser 140 selects or competitively bids on one or more of the following characteristics: advertising quantity, advertising panels per beverage container, advertising exclusivity (single advertiser controls all panels on a beverage container), or regional exclusivity (advertiser has exclusivity for all beverage containers in a region for a particular time period). As will be apparent to those familiar with a competitive bidding process, the process adjusts the acceptable bidding price per unit (beverage container) as a function of at least one of the characteristics.
Once the advertiser has accepted or bid upon the available advertising space, or at least a portion thereof, the advertisers' ad copy is requested by the advertising interface. Preferably, the ad copy is provided in a format suitable to fit within a predefined shape (die cut) designed to fit on the side panel of a beverage container. For example, the shapes seen in
Upon receiving the advertising copy, the advertising interface handles preparing printed copy in the form of labels for affixing to beverage containers (e.g., die cut shapes as depicted in
In one embodiment, it is contemplated that a printing supplier will print the ad copy on appropriate label stock and that the label stock will be employed to apply labels directly to the containers in an automated fashion in much the same manner in which labels are presently employed, for example, a liner-fed labeling process. This portion of the process entails providing printed ad copy to the beverage bottler 130 for placement on the beverage containers. The printed labels in one or more of the shapes in
The process is not yet complete, however, as an aspect of the method and system to be implemented may further include tracking and reporting of the completion of the advertisement placement (for confirmation of advertisement), along with determining any impact to sales of particular goods arising from the beverage container or product advertising. In particular, the advertising interface 120, or more specifically an automated computer system, tracks retailer data providing information relative to retailer sales. More specifically the system tracks sales of the beverage containers bearing the printed ad copy in conjunction with sales of at least one product advertised in the printed copy to identify and report the correlation between the beverage container advertising and changes in product sales volumes.
The present system contemplates at least two methods of confirming the association of advertising and increased purchases. In one embodiment, it is simply the increased purchase volume of advertised goods that is reported. In an alternative embodiment, the system contemplates an interface to the retailer point-of-sale system, whereby a bar code (510;
The present method also contemplates the advertising interface 120 receiving, from the beverage bottler 130, data confirming the number of beverage containers with printed copy thereon delivered to the retailer and receiving, from the retailer 110, data confirming the number of beverage containers sold with printed copy thereon, and thereby also determining a number of any unsold beverage containers having printed copy thereon. The advertising interface can also generate a report to the advertiser including: (a) actual advertising volume printed, (b) advertising volume sold, and (c) advertised product volume sold for at least a particular time period (e.g., week, month, etc). And, the advertising interface may also adjust the fee or payment due from the advertiser as a function of the number of unsold beverage containers having printed copy thereon (e.g., if the milk reaches an expiration date, it's advertising “value” is lost). Alternatively, the advertising interface may automatically add or place additional ad copy for the advertiser in a subsequent beverage production for the retailer.
In accordance with the described process, it is contemplated that every market may be different as it relates to marketing geography/territory, (e.g., New England, Mid-Atlantic, Mid-west, West Coast, etc.) and grocery store size, (superstores, traditional grocers, and convenience stores). Similarly, the advertising interface may include the ability to track other promotional campaigns by the advertiser and/or retailer, and to determine whether other competitive campaigns will run at the same time.
The present invention contemplates the advertising interface receiving a commission based on the earnings of the milk sales. (e.g., $0.01 to $0.05 per container). It is also contemplated that the advertising interface could enter into a limited territorial exclusivity with a particular retailer for a period of time (e.g., regions or states that a retailer has operations in). The retail grocer receives compensation from the advertising interface (e.g., Ad-Milk) based upon the volume of business in milk, or whatever product(s) advertising is placed on.
In summary, the advertising interface 120 receives data indicating sales unit and dollar volume of advertised products from the grocer, permitting it to track sales increases for the advertised products and produce reports to the product manufacturer. The advertising interface 120 and the product manufacturer may also compare sales results to determine the effectiveness of a promotion or campaign.
The interface 120, in conjunction with the advertiser 140, also determines the base product purchases prior to the campaign. This is the measurement point for sales increase. For a campaign that runs for several weeks, e.g, four to eight weeks, the advertising interface receives order information (this would be in the form of duplicate order forms or a weekly report from a more automated system) and then prepares reports comparing order information/sales weekly to the base order and sales information. This information will have sufficient detail to report information by store location and/or store type (superstores, traditional stores and convenience stores). This level of reporting will allow for analysis of advertising effectiveness and future campaign targeting for the producer and grocer by store location and size. These reports would track information through the advertising campaign plus some follow-up period, for example, approximately four weeks. The additional time would be used to determine the residual effect of the advertising campaign.
Also illustrated in
Having generally described the operation of the method for the management of advertising on containers, attention is briefly turned to
The advertising broker computer 230 receives, from the retailer computer 210 (via the Internet or similar network connection), beverage order data indicating a quantity of future beverage orders issued from said retailer to a bottler, wherein in response to the beverage order data, the advertising broker computer: (a) determines available advertising space associated with the beverage order, (b) automatically offers, to at least one advertiser, at least a portion of the available advertising space associated with the beverage order, (c) automatically receives, from an advertiser data indicating a request for advertising on at least a portion of the available advertising space, and (d) in response to the advertiser's acceptance, places an order for advertising copy in a format suitable to fit within a predefined shape (die cut). As illustrated, the advertising broker's computer also includes storage devices suitable for not only storing order and sales information as described above, but also for storing advertising copy and information relating to manufacturer's advertising.
As previously described, computer 230 further communicates with advertisers 140 (or their computers) and may operate software suitable for receiving advertising orders and/or managing the brokering or bidding for advertising space on the beverage containers. Such software may be similar to that used by eBay or similar on-line auction websites, and may include the automated exchange of data or other information via any of a number of “languages,” including hypertext markup language (HTML) and extensible markup language (XML). In one embodiment, the brokering or bidding operations may be carried out within a business-to-business transaction completed via the Internet or similar network. The advertising interface computer also tracks, with the retailer, sales of the beverage containers bearing the printed copy in conjunction with sales of at least one product indicated in the printed copy so as to determine a correlation between the beverage container advertising and any change in product sales volumes. As illustrated in
Turning next to
Once a relationship is established between the broker and the retailer, the broker receives, from the retailer, the retailer's product order data indicating projected quantity(ies) of product orders and/or orders issued from the retailer to a product supplier, 918. It may also be the case that the broker would have to receive information relative to the retailer's requirements and/or preferences relative to advertising. Such requirements may include limitations as to what may be advertised, or in what size or position the advertising may appear in. For example, the retailer may direct that advertising for another vendor's dairy products may not be placed on the retailer's branded milk containers. Using the milk jug example depicted in
Using the information provided by the retailer, the broker is then able to determine the advertising space and quantity associated with the product order—and available for “sale” for advertising placement as represented at 922. Once the available space and the estimated quantity is determined, the method contemplates automatically offering, to at least one advertiser, all or a portion of the advertising space and quantity available as depicted at 926. In other words, the broker determines if an advertiser(s) is interested in “buying” some available space on at least some product (e.g., a side panel on 50K milk containers that are on order for June 2005).
Although various offer-acceptance models may be employed, including those that are completed via the exchanges of documents and/or electronic communication, as depicted in block 970, the present invention also contemplates that the offer of advertising space may be completed via an electronic or on-line auction to solicit competitive bids on at least a portion of the available advertising space and quantity. Although an “eBay model” may be contemplated, where there is a “public” auction, it is also possible that the offer and bidding may be accomplished through networked communications with potential advertisers. An example of the interaction steps for an auction-like offering includes those set forth at 972-978, although it will be appreciated that alternative and/or additional steps may be implemented as well.
At 972, information is posted regarding available space, quantity, etc. for product-based advertisement. Advertisers are able to see the availability through a network, perhaps a subscription or registration based network. Another possibility is that the broker sends a broadcast fax, e-mail or similar transmission of information to prospective advertisers notifying them of the available space, quantities. The posting would also solicit advertiser(s) bids for all or portion of advertising available at 974. In response, advertisers would submit bids and the system would receive those bids for all or portion of available advertising at 976. Again, the process may be one where the bidding is “public” so other advertisers can see all the bids, or it may be a “private” process, where each advertiser submits their bid and is only able to determine if it was successful or unsuccessful after notification from the broker. At 978, successful bid(s) would be acknowledged and accepted to complete the auction transaction. Returning to 930, the offer of 926 is then automatically accepted for at least the portion of the available advertising space and quantity.
Although not specifically illustrated in
Referring also to
The method, at 936, also indicates that the broker 120 (
In one embodiment of the method, the tracking/reporting operations may also include confirming the number of product containers with advertising copy thereon delivered to the retailer. Subsequently, the broker may receive, from the retailer, data confirming the number of product containers sold by the retailer. This data may be manually delivered or more preferably electronically communicated to the broker who then reports to the advertiser. Reports to the advertiser(s) may include actual advertising quantity printed, advertising quantity sold and advertised product volume sold by the retailer over a period of time (e.g., week, month, etc.).
Lastly, at 940, the broker may be responsible for completing the financial transaction(s) associated with the brokered advertising, including receiving funds from the advertiser and disbursing a portion of the funds to the retailer. It is further contemplated, as indicated in
As noted above relative to the tracking and reporting operations, the advertisement “sale” may also be conditioned upon the number of products sold during a particular time period. In other words, while the advertiser may have contracted to have advertisements appear on 50K containers, if only 49K containers were sold, the others being returned due to expiration, damage, loss, etc., the advertiser would seek an adjustment of the advertising fees paid. Accordingly, the method 900 contemplates adjusting a fee due from the advertiser as a function of at least the number of product containers actually sold. It is also contemplated that the fee due from the advertiser may be adjusted as a function of at least the volume of advertised product sold by the retailer (e.g., sharing of “profit” resulting from the advertising impact).
It will be appreciated that various of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into and with many other different systems or applications. Also, various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.
Claims
1. A method for managing the sale of advertising on beverage containers, comprising:
- receiving, from a retailer, beverage order data indicating a quantity of future beverage orders issued from said retailer to a bottler;
- in response to said beverage order data, determining available advertising space associated with the beverage order;
- automatically offering, to at least one advertiser, at least a portion of the available advertising space associated with the beverage order;
- automatically receiving, from the at least one advertiser, an acceptance of at least a portion of the available advertising space;
- in response to the acceptance, requesting advertising copy in a format suitable to fit within a predefined shape;
- upon receiving the advertising copy, preparing printed copy including the advertising;
- affixing the printed copy to a plurality of beverage containers; and
- tracking, with said retailer, sales of the beverage containers bearing the printed copy in conjunction with sales of at least one product indicated in the printed copy so as to determine a correlation between the beverage container advertising and any change in product sales volumes.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising including a removable coupon as a portion of the printed copy.
3. The method of claim 2, further comprising tracking the use of the removable coupon for purchases of advertised products.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
- receiving data confirming the number of beverage containers with printed copy thereon delivered to the retailer;
- receiving, from said retailer, data confirming the number of beverage containers with printed copy thereon sold by the retailer; and
- reporting to the advertiser actual advertising volume printed, advertising volume sold and advertised product volume sold for at least one time period.
5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:
- determining a number of unsold beverage containers having printed copy thereon; and
- adjusting a fee due from the advertiser as a function of the number of unsold beverage containers having printed copy thereon.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of automatically offering available advertising space and automatically receiving an acceptance further comprise:
- conducting an auction whereby an advertiser bids on at least one of the characteristics selected from the group consisting of: advertising quantity, advertising panels per beverage container, advertising exclusivity, and regional exclusivity; and
- wherein the bid is adjusted as a function of at least one of the characteristics.
7. A distributed system for managing the sale of advertising on beverage containers, comprising:
- a retailer computer for automatically compiling, from a plurality of retail locations, orders for beverages being sold in containers, said containers having space for advertising thereon, and tracking the sales of such beverages;
- an advertising broker computer for receiving, from the retailer computer, beverage order data indicating a quantity of future beverage orders issued from said retailer, wherein in response to the beverage order data, the advertising broker computer (a) determines available advertising space associated with the beverage order, (b) automatically offers, to at least one advertiser, at least a portion of the available advertising space associated with the beverage order, (c) automatically receives, from an advertiser data indicating an acceptance for advertising offered on at least a portion of the available advertising space, and (d) in response to the advertiser's acceptance, places an order for advertising copy;
- the advertising broker computer also tracking, with said retailer, sales of beverage containers bearing printed advertising copy in conjunction with sales of at least one product indicated in the advertising copy to determine a correlation between the beverage container advertising and product sales volumes.
8. The system of claim 7, wherein the advertising copy is produced in a panel form as a label suitable for application to the beverage container.
9. The system of claim 7, wherein said retailer computer and advertising broker computer are connected through a network connection to facilitate the exchange of information.
10. The system of claim 9, where said advertising broker computer further includes a memory to store information including sales of the beverage containers for subsequent analysis and reporting.
11. A method for managing the sale of product advertising on containers, comprising:
- receiving, from a retailer, product order data indicating a quantity of future product orders issued from said retailer to a product supplier, said data identifying at least one characteristic of the container;
- in response to said product order data, determining available advertising space and quantity associated with the product order based upon the container characteristic;
- offering, to at least one advertiser, at least a portion of the advertising space and quantity available as a result of the product order;
- receiving, from the at least one advertiser, an acceptance of at least the portion of the available advertising space and quantity; and
- placing advertising copy in the portion of the advertising space and quantity available on product containers.
12. The method of claim 10, further comprising tracking, with said retailer, sales of the product containers bearing the advertising copy.
13. The method of claim 12, further comprising tracking, in conjunction with product sales, the sales of at least one advertised product appearing in the advertising copy so as to determine a correlation between the product container advertising and advertised product sales.
14. The method of claim 11, wherein the advertising copy includes a removable coupon, and where the method further comprises printing the removable coupon as at least a portion of the advertising copy.
15. The method of claim 14, further comprising tracking the use of the removable coupon for purchases of advertised products.
16. The method of claim 11, further comprising:
- confirming the number of product containers with advertising copy thereon delivered to the retailer;
- receiving, from said retailer, data confirming the number of product containers sold by the retailer; and
- reporting to the advertiser actual advertising quantity printed, advertising quantity sold and advertised product volume sold by the retailer for at least one time period.
17. The method of claim 16, further comprising adjusting a fee due from the advertiser as a function of at least the number of product containers sold.
18. The method of claim 17, further comprising adjusting a fee due from the advertiser as a function of at least the volume of advertised product sold by the retailer.
19. The method of claim 18, further comprising determining a number of unsold containers having advertising copy thereon and reporting same to the advertiser.
20. The method of claim 11, wherein the steps of offering available advertising space and receiving an acceptance further comprise conducting an auction to solicit competitive bids on at least a portion of the available advertising space and quantity.
21. The method of claim 20,
- wherein an advertising characteristic includes at least one characteristic selected from the group consisting of:
- advertising quantity;
- advertising space per container;
- advertising exclusivity; and
- regional exclusivity; and
- where the auction adjusts the bid price per container as a function of at least one of the characteristics in the group.
Type: Application
Filed: Oct 3, 2006
Publication Date: Apr 12, 2007
Inventors: Jeanette Fenti (Webster, NY), Derek Messner (Fairport, NY)
Application Number: 11/538,279
International Classification: G06Q 99/00 (20060101); G07G 1/14 (20060101); G06Q 30/00 (20060101);